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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Jerusalem's Beauty Disfigured By Racist Israeli Policies

Occupiers have limited endurance in contrast to that of the
occupied people who strive to keep their struggle alive

By As'ad Abdul Rahman

Image Credit: Luis Vazquez/Gulf News

Many observers confirm that the Israeli state is being ruled by a fundamentalist doctrine, exactly like Al Qaida, where 85 per cent of the world Jewry who do not belong to ‘the Jewish Orthodoxy’ are now being considered to be non-Jewish!

The
very famous Roman/Jewish historian, Josephus, wrote: "There is no town as
Biblical as Jerusalem, but it was neither built nor named by the Hebrews."
Indeed, according to the earliest Jewish traditions: "[Occupied] Jerusalem
is directly identified with the ancient city Salem that the Biblical
Melchizedek, (King of Righteousness), dwelt and ruled and whom Abraham paid
tithe (zakat)".

It
is worth mentioning that Melchizedek was the founder of Jerusalem as well as
the King and the priest of Al Elyon, of the Canaanites of Salem who held two
other names, the Palestinians and the Jebusites who also called the city Jebus.

Also,
[Occupied] Jerusalem is Yerushlem in Aramaic, Urishlem in Syriac, Ursalim in
Assyrian and Beit Al Maqdis, (the Holy/ Sanctified House) in Arabic. Jerusalem
is also "Zahrat Al Mada'in", the top elite of all cities that gives
hope to three religions, is being distorted in a way killing all hopes for
peace and peaceful co-existence between the three faiths derived from the creed
of Ebrahim.

The
spiritual beauty of the city of peace is being disfigured by the egotistical,
racist and colonial policy of almost all Israeli governments who are hell-bent
on changing history, and destroying universal values which were dearly held by
Jews throughout history.

It
was egotistical racism, apartheid policy and attempts to wipe out Judaism from
the face of this earth which Jews faced by holding fast to the rule of law not
the rule of men and by declaring all men (males and females) have equal rights
regardless of gender, colour, creed or ethnicity.

These
are the same values that are being trampled upon on daily basis by Israeli
military boots in the occupied Palestinian land and especially in the
Palestinian city of Jerusalem. Turning the Holy City of Peace into a racist
Jewish city by attempting to wipe out the Palestinian living presence after
vandalising graves of dead Palestinians in the city is only a recipe for
disaster that shall directly affect not only the very existence of the Zionist
state, but also the national security of the West as a whole, especially the
American national security.

While
the universal principle that all human beings have equal rights under the law
is the very principle which the people of the Jewish faith held steadfastly to
in the face of Nazism in Germany; this same principle is being violated now by
the extreme Zionist right in Israel.

Permission
to enter

Many
observers confirm that the Israeli state is being ruled by a fundamentalist
doctrine, exactly like Al Qaida, where 85 per cent of the world Jewry who do
not belong to ‘the Jewish Orthodoxy' are now being considered to be non-Jewish!
In this context, one would also ask: Then what about the destiny of the
Palestinians who are the original indigenous people of the Holy Land and
occupied Jerusalem? Indeed, it is comforting to witness hundreds of thousands
of Jews around the world screaming from the very top of their lungs against
Israel: "not in our name"!

Having
been born in occupied Jerusalem myself, I had a first hand experience of the
difficult conditions as I struggled years ago to get a permission to enter and
visit my country Palestine and my birthplace, in the holy city. That was on
November 18, 1993, when my dear friend and brother, Palestinian martyr Faisal
Al Hussaini informed me that a permit from Israeli authorities had finally been
obtained, but on condition that I bring with me Palestinian investors to attend
a special workshop on investment issues.

I
felt pain and anger to be treated like any tourist on visiting my homeland
under certain conditions, but more painful was the sight I saw upon arriving.
The holy city was besieged by a large wall of apartment buildings thicker than
the Wall of China. One colony after the other have been planted on the ground
swallowing nearly 25 per cent of the total area of the West Bank, established
as accomplished facts declaring loud and clear to every Palestinian that there
was no place for them in the Holy Land which only belongs to Jews! Yet, not to
all, but only to Orthodox Jews, as the present rulers of Israel have chosen.

Those
have cast additional black shadows that surrounded occupied Jerusalem and have
dimmed hopes for peace and created a suffocating atmosphere making it hard for
Palestinians to breathe. Yet, the latter will never give up their dreams and
hopes to regain their city which stands at the core of their national
consciousness. Lately, Dr Ayida Al Najjar brought vivid images of the holy city
in her book Al Quds wal Bint Al Shalabiya (Jerusalem and the Pretty Girl) which
speaks of the unwavering attachment to the birthplace while recalling the
cultural role played by Palestinian women in the city during the British
Mandate in Palestine.

Yet,
the occupied Jerusalem of today is becoming daily unrecognisable to many of its
Palestinian inhabitants. Nevertheless, the long history of occupied Jerusalem
tells us that all occupiers have limited endurance time as long as the occupied
indigenous people keep their struggle alive in line with set principles
guaranteed by all religions and by international law.

-This commentary was published in The GULF NEWS on 03/2011
-Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia

About Me

I graduated from the French University in Beirut (St Joseph) specialising in Political and Economic Sciences. I started my working life in 1973 as a reporter and journalist for the pan-Arab magazine “Al-Hawadess” in Lebanon later becoming its Washington, D.C. correspondent. I subsequently moved to London in 1979 joining “Al-Majallah” magazine as its Deputy Managing Editor. In 1984 joined “Assayad” magazine in London initially as its Managing Editor and later as Editor-in-Chief. Following this, in 1990 I joined “Al-Wasat” magazine (part of the Dar-Al-Hayat Group) in London as a Managing Editor. In 2011 I became the Editor-In-Chief of Miraat el-Khaleej (Gulf Mirror). In July 2012 I became the Chairman of The Board of Asswak Al-Arab Publishing Ltd in UK and the Editor In Chief of its first Publication "Asswak Al-Arab" Magazine (Arab Markets Magazine) (www.asswak-alarab.com).

I have already authored five books. The first “The Tears of the Horizon” is a love story. The second “The Winter of Discontent in The Gulf” (1991) focuses on the first Gulf war sparked by Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. His third book is entitled “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: From Balfour Promise to Bush Declaration: The Complications and the Road to a Lasting Peace” (March 2008). The fourth book is titled “How Iran Plans to Fight America and Dominate the Middle East” (October 2008) And the fifth and the most recent is titled "JIHAD'S NEW HEARTLANDS: Why The West Has Failed To Contain Islamic Fundamentalism" (May 2011).

Furthermore, I wrote the memoirs of national security advisor to US President Ronald Reagan, Mr Robert McFarlane, serializing them in “Al-Wasat” magazine over 14 episodes in 1992.

Over the years, I have interviewed and met several world leaders such as American President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Margaret Thacher, Late King Hassan II of Morocco, Late King Hussein of Jordan,Tunisian President Zein El-Abedine Bin Ali, Lybian Leader Moammar Al-Quadhafi,President Amine Gemayel of Lebanon,late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, Haitian President Jean Claude Duvalier, Late United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan,Algerian President Shazli Bin Jdid, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Siyagha and more...